BY KETSIA HOUDE
Just as each artist is unique, so is each lens. Four photographers, three from Québec and one from the Yukon, Valérie Théorêt, introduce the view through their lenses in their collective exhibit, Through a Feminine Lens, at the Centre de la francophonie.
This fall, Les EssentiElles, in collaboration with the cultural sector of AFY, invites you to discover the reality of women from Québec, the Yukon and Mali that has been captured by this exhibit.
The artists have, each in their own way, explored and represented their perceptions of the feminine body in these societies. And this exhibit will encourage you to reflect on your own perception of women’s bodies, feminine stereotypes and self-esteem as a well as women’s place in society.
This artistic project brings forward the contrasts and similarities of different realities and it brings us to the intersection of lives lived in these places where barriers, possibilities and hopes differ greatly.
This project is dear to Les EssentiElles because Yukon artist, Valérie Théorêt, with her photomontage project, North and White, presents nine francophone women, friends who chose to settle in the North.
Through her artwork, she discovered and gives us an opportunity to discover these women and their creativity, sensitivity, generosity, freedom and simplicity as well as the eccentricities that seem to define most Northerners.
The three artists from Québec are Nadine Boulianne, from Rivière-du-Loup, who chose to represent her perception of women’s bodies; Pilar Macias, from La Pocatière, who offers us photomontages from the life of her models; and Marie-Espérance Cerda, who brought back images of women and their world from her humanitarian work in Mali.
This project was initiated by the women’s centre in Rivière–du-Loup’s Centre-Femmes du Grand-Portage, which, with the participation of a Yukon artist, offered to collaborate with les EssentiElles to bring the exhibit to Whitehorse.
Part of the profit from the sale of artworks will fund the Centre-Femmes du Grand-Portage.
The exhibition will kick off with live music by Catherine Bouchard, on violin, at 7 p.m. on September 9. Through a Feminine Lens will be on display at the community hall of the Centre de la francophonie, 302 Strickland, from Sept. 9 to Nov. 10. The gallery is open Fridays from 5 to 7:30 p.m. or upon request.
This article is courtesy of the cultural sector of the AFY, which holds new art exhibitions every two months to feature new francophone artists. If you are a francophone or a francophile and would like to book an exhibition, contact them at 668-2663 ext. 560.
